Evaluation of Music Magazine

Laurie Briggs As Music Magazine Evaluation Questions 

1. In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media project “Yesterday” is influenced conceptually by the successful MOJO magazine. MOJO is a music magazine that looks at the past years of Rock N Roll with mainstays on the front cover being the likes of The Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Doors. In a similar vein I’ve set my magazine up as a retro mag advertising similar things e.g articles on the white album. I also thought that the title “Yesterday” connoted both the past and a very famous 60’s song suggesting further that this is a magazine for the hippy era. The way I chose to develop “Yesterday” in a way for it to differ from MOJO was that I decided to have my magazine review not only past bands but whole genre’s of music and more importantly review bands which are bringing largely forgotten genre’s like funk back into the mainstream. My front cover conveys these aims through its psychedelic colour scheme (green and purple) and overral style and font, ia simple wish to return to the nostalgia of pre year 2000 music.

2. How does your media project represent particular social groups?  

       Condsidering the fact that YESTERDAY is a retro magazine, special focus was given to aged musicians and to emphasise the nostalgic feel of their music YESTERDAY photographed them wearing contemporary clothes and with a slightly grainy camera focus. Equally for the main feature the musicians (who are all pre 25 year olds) were photographed with a much more keen camera focus to represent the sharpness of youth. Also to dispell myths of youth aggression and antagonism the lighting scheme was used with very calming relaxed colours (purple and green) and we let them wear what they wanted to get a better feeling of diversity.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media magazine and why? 

Within the music magazine business I think the best company to distribute my magazine would be the Bauer Media Group. Given their past successes with Q and Kerrang it is evident that they know how to efficiently sell music magazines. Furthermore the success of MOJO magazine which has some very similar elements to YESTERDAY (retro style, old album reviews) shows that Bauer know how to sell retro magazines which means YESTERDAY would profit well from their guidance. I would persuade BAUER to publish it through the knowledgae that there isn't a retro magazine that really targets young people who, judging by the responses of the survey, want one. I would suggest an initial pilot magazine goes out as a free addition to MOJO and judging by its success we can see wether its successful enough to charge for individually.  

4. Who would be the audience for your music magazine?

Given my recent survey results showing more and more people listening to old rock music, my target audience would actually be fairly broad. I would probably aim the magazine most specifically at ages 16-25 as these are the peak years of magazine buying while still keeping up enough old artists like “Led Zeppelin” on the front cover of my magazine to ensure an interest for the older generations of 40+.                                                                                                    

      

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I used a retro angle to appeal to appeal to the fans of older music. The funky colour scheme was chosen from results of my survey which favoured green and purple. The language is chatty and familiar to retro music lovers and the images recapture golden moments of music history. The bands I have listed are the most popular ones, whilst introducing new ones in the sameiilke. I exploited the tags and sweet spot to my advantage. I also engaged the attention of my target audience by handing out paper surveys to people who were willing to accept them. These were people who I knew how to locate after they finished the survey. I also communicated verbally with a few unknown target audience members who assured me that they would buy a retro magazine if there was one on offer.

     6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this     product?

Through the manufacturing of my magazine I have since progressed in my technological knowledge. I utilised some the more advanced elements of photoshop, such as the layer and blending options, so as to get the best finish out of my magazine and make it look as psychedelic as possible. I also became aware of the proper method of printing the pages out, with the consideration of making my magazine fit-to-size etc. 
7. Looking back at your primary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Primarily I progressed in my knowledge of magazine production. When I first started this project I came at it as a consumer. I have had to really look at how a magazine is constructed and marketed for a  specific audience. I've improved my technical skills (using photoshop) and know how to apply them to achieve my target attractive product. With the school magazine I found that I was trying to use too many different colours for the front page, whereas with YESTERDAY, I used a palette of just green and purple for the front page which was considerably more effective. I also wasn’t that great at organizing the images on the school magazine and my front page consists of two out-of-place pictures whereas with the music magazine, one enlarged photo for the front page with everything superimposed onto it worked far better.